5 Best VPNs for South Korea – Anonymously Stream, Torrent, Watch Porn & More in 2018

Stephen Cooper

September 29, 2017

Korea is at war. This is not because of recent name calling by Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. The Korean War of the 1950s was never officially ended. The line on the map that divides North Korea and South Korea is not an international border – it is the current frontline of the war, settled on by a ceasefire. It is still bristling with armaments and nervous soldiers facing each other across the ravines. Never forget these simple facts when you travel, or move, to South Korea.

Being in a constant state of war brings plenty of benefits to the South Korean government. It doesn’t have to justify military spending. It can impose whatever ad hoc censorship it likes in the interests of the nation. The fight to be right also spurs on the young to be diligent at school, while workers rarely strike or riot.

One very positive side effect of the South Korean government’s determination to win by any means is the enormous investment that the nation has made in education and technology. South Korea is breathtakingly advanced. Its young people are exceptionally knowledgeable. Creative South Koreans play with cultural themes to invent new and exciting trends. They’re also curious about the lifestyles and people of other countries. Young South Koreans are very comfortable with cutting-edge technology – they integrate it into every aspect of their lives.

Unfortunately, many hard working, successful young people tend to strain at the leash. They don’t like being told what to do. Every nation with an open society knows the demands of the young to be free and rebellious. The intellectual curiosity of South Korea’s youth, combined with its advanced technology, heightens the urge to kick down traditions. However, asserting your individuality, exploring your freedoms, and standing up for what you believe in can lead to arrest in South Korea.

Consequently, it can be difficult to speak your mind on the net in South Korea. Websites aren’t allowed to accept comments or posts from anyone who hasn’t registered on the site with their identification documents. Anonymity is frowned upon in South Korea. This is because the country’s politicians wish to preserve the nation’s traditional respect for elders. They don’t want to be ridiculed, exposed for falsehood, or disobeyed by flaming upstarts hiding behind pseudonyms. Many sites comply with these rules. Others, such as YouTube, simply refuse to accept posts or comments from South Korean locations.

No one in South Korea wants to be absorbed into the living hell that is North Korea. However, few can see how sites about gay issues, or edgy online games are likely to undermine the fabric of society. Elders and betters have control of the levers of power and use them to stamp out dissent on the internet. However, the quick-witted young of the country circumvent those controls with ease. Everyone in South Korea knows about Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

The 5 Best VPNs for South Korea

Here at BestVPN.com, we’ve compiled a list of world-class VPNs that work brilliantly in South Korea. These services will get back your anonymity on the web and keep snooping censors out of your face. Explore our list of the five best VPNs for South Korea to find out more.

Best VPNs for South Korea: Summary

Ironsocket is based in Hong Kong. Although this ex-British colony is not exactly next door to South Korea, it's an excellent location for a VPN. The territory has very few restrictions on VPNs and there are almost no legal obligations over issues such as data retention. This is an important factor for those who want anonymity, because you wouldn't want your identity to be traced through your VPN. Hong Kong is a hothouse for VPNs that compete against the restrictions of the Chinese government. Ironsocket is one of those services that was specifically created for the Chinese market.
South Korean website bans are implemented by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This VPN can sneak all of your web traffic past your ISP, using strong encryption to obscure connection-identifying information. The company has servers in South Korea. However, if you're interested in peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading, the company asks you not to use that location. Instead, you should access the nearest P2P-enabled server, which is located in Taiwan.

BolehVPN is based in Malaysia. The company doesn't operate VPN servers in South Korea - your closest location is in Japan. This network doesn't have coverage in many locations. However, there are servers in Japan, Hong Kong, and the US among the 14 countries available with this service.
Like Ironsocket, BloehVPN is aimed at the Chinese market, so it will serve you well in South Korea. The service keeps no logs on user activities, which is important for those who want to be untraceable on the web. The company also approves of P2P downloading with its network. One downside is that you're only allowed two simultaneous OpenVPN connections with this service. However, you can also have one Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) connection at the same time.

VPNArea is based in Switzerland. However, it has a long record of success in the Chinese market, so its stealth measures are world-class. The company is fantastic at getting its customers past the international access blocks at video streaming services. It can get you into Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky Go, NowTV, HBO GO, and HBO NOW, among others.
The VPNArea server network includes locations in 68 countries, including South Korea. Some of the servers are optimized for specific tasks, such as streaming or downloading. The company is fine with its customers using the network for P2P downloads and its technical staff has a wealth of knowledge on the topic, should you need help. You are allowed six simultaneous connections with this service and it is OK to share an account with a friend.

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, but it focuses its technical capabilities on the Chinese market. The company has a large server network with a presence in 94 countries, including South Korea. Our ExpressVPN review also found that this is another VPN that is very good at getting into overseas video streaming services and can get around the blocks at Netflix. The high speed of this VPN network is another good reason to choose this service if you particularly want to watch streaming video.
Security measures include a kill switch to prevent the apps on your device from connecting to the internet if the VPN is not engaged. You also get automatic WiFi protection with ExpressVPN.

PureVPN has the largest server network on this list. The company operates more than 750 servers, in 141 countries. Six of those servers are located in South Korea. PureVPN is on our list because it is one of the best services for evading internet restrictions in China, so it is brilliant at getting around website bans in South Korea.
Privacy measures implemented by the PureVPN service include a private Domain Name System (DNS), a kill switch, and automatic WiFi protection. The company keeps no activity logs and it is fine about its customers joining P2P networks through its servers.

Best VPNs for Use in South Korea: Considerations

South Korea’s neighbor, China, is the most repressed internet-connected nation on Earth. The Chinese government ranks on freedom of speech sites as the implementer of the tightest internet restrictions in the world – a title it holds with pride. No matter how bad things seem to be in South Korea, it’s actually ranked as one of the freest countries in the world (although not totally unrestricted). Freedom House gave South Korea’s internet freedoms a score of 36 out 100 in 2016. In the organization’s scoring methodology, a low score denotes a country that has more freedom. That compares to the score of 18/100 that it gave to the US and 38/100 that it gave to Mexico.

Thanks to China’s determined battle against the freedom and anonymity that VPNs allow, some VPN services have become very adept at dodging government restrictions. China is like a power gym for VPNs – those providers that want to be world champions have used all the resources and cunning they can muster to beat Chinese VPN detection systems and internet restrictions. Consequently, those VPNs that can beat the Chinese authorities can effortlessly overcome South Korea’s internet restrictions.

VPNs can hop you over to a different country without you ever having to leave South Korea. If you don’t like the internet access available in South Korea, then at the push of a button your VPN can put your computer elsewhere on the map. Click on the United States to enjoy the best of Netflix, the UK to flick through Gay Times, or Japan to enjoy awesome online games. VPNs work like a magic internet carpet to fly you around the world’s best websites and online services.

Streaming Video in South Korea

One major internet restriction that you might face relates to video streaming services. These online video sites don’t like people accessing their content from outside specified territories. This is not a restriction that can be laid at the door of the South Korean government. Instead, the video sites themselves impose these blocks.

Overseas video streaming sites restrict access to their content in order to comply with their legal obligations. The sites pay copyright holders for the right to show videos in specified territories. They have to do all they can to ensure that those same videos are not accessed from outside the stated countries.

A VPN gets you around these restrictions by making you appear to be in a location for which access is granted. Unfortunately, video streaming sites try to prevent you from using VPNs to get access from overseas. They implement VPN detection software in order to block this trick. One of the hardest detection systems to get around is that of Netflix.

The VPNs on our list are all able to get around these streaming service blocks. Thus you’ll be able to enjoy the best videos from your home country while you’re in South Korea, just as long as you select a VPN server location in the same country as the streaming service you want to watch.

Best VPNs for South Korea: Conclusion

The restrictions on internet access, monitoring by the government, and bans on websites in South Korea may seem inconvenient. However, the country’s controls on internet freedoms are by no means the worst in the world.

Thanks to the hard work that some VPN companies have put into fighting internet restrictions in China, you can easily bypass the controls on your online life when in South Korea. However, these VPNs can’t protect you if you identify yourself and your location in the things you write online. Be cautious about what you say and write when you’re in South Korea. In addition, let one the five best VPNs for South Korea give you back your internet freedom.